Addressing The Pressing Issues About Child Abuse And Sexualization Online

Abstract

This article talks about the online trend of normalizing paedophilia that has become a huge concern for the modern society. The online trolls play a very big part in the encouragement of such behaviours within the online community, increasing the risk of child abuse and sexualization of minors. The purpose of this article is to address such issues and bring light to the seriousness of such matters. Though laws and strict measures are taken towards child abuse and paedophilia in the real world but the invigoration of such conduct online gives a negative message to the world by portraying sexualization of minors as ‘funny jokes’ that makes a person cracking it ‘cool’ on the internet. 

Determined measures should be taken against such behavior as the glorification of such practices distorts the mentality of the youths and pushes young and naïve children towards the peril of such maltreatments affecting their mental health. Protection and insurance of a safe environment for growth and development of children in the real world as well as online  is the liability of each and every individual and failing to provide so should be heavily condemned in the society and the same applies for the web as well. 

Keywords

Online paedophilia, Trolls, Children Protection, Online Abuse, Mental Health. 

Introduction

The digital era has changed the way we interact, educate and disseminate information. Yet, it has also established a world for children that seems dangerous by means of exposing them to major risks such as manipulation and sexualization. The online abuses related to child abuse and the sexualisation of a child is a universal problem that places all future generations in danger. The anonymity and vastness of the internet enables these problems to occur, as predators can easily locate a young person who is seeking help or attention through online spaces, while in addition social media platforms contribute towards promoting child pornography and child sexualizing comments and trolls encouraging the mentality of such people and influencing the minds of youths. Solving these issues requires a multi-pronged approach that includes education, laws and regulation, technology and community work.

The envision of a world in which children are free to explore, learn and enjoy the opportunities that online technology provides without fear of exploitation or abuse seems like a dream in the present scenario. Child abuse online includes offences such as grooming, distribution of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), cyber bullying, child sexualization and human trafficking. Distributing CSAM is a very serious crime, as it entails creating and disseminating material depicting minors in sexually explicit situations. Another form of bullying online is cyber bullying which can negatively impact a child’s mental health and boost their self esteem issues. Abusers are able to contact, manipulate and exploit children with greater ease than ever before due to the easy access of the web and difficulty of tracing the abuser online. The internet offers a platform that is accessible on a global scale whilst providing relative anonymity.

The term ‘paedophilia’ refers to the condition of being sexually interested in children, or sexual activity with children. Such people generally have mental disorders that need serious attention and treatment and the spread of their ideologies on the internet encourages them to believe that such thoughts about sexualizing children is normal and well appreciated in modern society. Nowadays the comment section of young children has become a picnic spot for the predators and child abusers to openly (spread) their vile (ideologies) traumatizing children and citizens regarding their (mentality). The most saddening part regarding all these is the lack of action taken by the authorities with respect to such open discussions and the (lack) of laws to regulate the internet. 

The problem of child abuse and sexualization on the Web is especially vital to discuss because such experiences can negatively affect young people. They may as well develop anxiety disorders, which include depression, post traumatic stress disorder and other related complications. These are some of the abuses that are so much prevalent with the modern world being so much tilted towards the digital kind of use and because of this, the damaging contents that are spread, especially to the victims of the sexual violence can be so much hurtful and hard to be eradicated as they continue to circulate on the web. 

Literature Review

India as a developing nation needs to realize the growing importance of internet rules and needs to govern its people on the internet as well. The youth of a nation during their primary years of learning various concepts and developing their core values, when discovers this side of the internet where child abuse and sexualization is normalized and starts grasping these values and implementing it, such is an alarming situation to even imagine. A nation where its children (‘The future hope of the land’) become unsafe shows the degeneration of the minds of people residing in such a country. It will be significant and relevant to analyze how the advancement in technologies particularly social media contributes to the sexualization of children. Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat are the most trending apps among youth, it encourages stuff with maximum likes, shares, and comments which many a time include objectionable pictures or acts. This puts pressure on the children on having to conform to certain aspects of the society in terms of dressing code and other behaviors which are unfit for children. Also, it is worthy to note that the algorithms that run these platforms are designed to feed the users contents they are likely to view more- like the contents that can trigger the assimilation of children into sensational or visually appealing contents which ultimately drives children into adopting sexualized modes of dressing to be noticed and appreciated that further leads them to be heavily noticed and targeted by predators. The most horrifying of such incidents that led to an immense fear within the society was the famous ‘Boys Locker Room Case’. The Bois Locker Room controversy refers to the investigation of an Instagram group chat called FIITJEE started by a group of schoolboys from college. The group chat's purpose was to share obscene images/comments of underage girls which led to public outcry. Even after taking legal action against them a new version of Bois locker (i.e.) ‘Bois Locker Room 2.0’ started where their bio was – ‘Let’s start this again. But this time join the group with a fake account so no one can expose you’. Such incidents raise concern within the society about the mentality of youths and the protection of underage children.

Methodology

Cyber victimization and sexualization is however multi-faceted and comes in various negative ways that harms and endanger children in cyberspace. It is therefore imperative to understand these forms if one is to design measures of countering these social evils. The main types are cyber bullying, production of and use of child pornography, sexual conversation with and sexual touching of children, grooming and other sexually related conduct and sexual exploitation of children through internet technologies.

1. Cyberbullying and Harassment: Cyber bullying entails the use of technological accessories such as phones, computers and other devices to bully a child. This may consist of bullying through sending harassing or threatening text and calling, posting rumors on social networks or sending rude messages, teasing through posting of revenge , funny photos or videos or possibly touching another aspect of harassment. Compared to traditional bullying, cyber bullying is more horrendous since it can happen at any time and many people can be reached within the shortest possible time. One of the disadvantages of the use of the internet is that it tends to bring out the worst in bullies making them feel less threatened than they will be in a face-to-face situation. The impacts on victims can be far-reaching, and the victims end up being stressed, depressed and have thoughts of suicide because of perpetrator’s actions.

2. Child Pornography and Exploitation: One of the sickest uses of the internet done by such abusers is in the production, sharing, and viewing of CSAM (Child Sexual Abuse Material) i.e- child pornography. Such content is created by coercion or manipulation and is shared on the deep and dark web, peer to peer sharing and sometimes, on conventional social media. The use of children in such materials is therefore not only wrong and unlawful, but also escalates the circle of abuse where the offenders post content to earn them a better standing in those unlawful subgroups. CSAM creation can be a single person, a group of abusers, sexual predators or even a criminal organization. Other than that, technology years back, people particularly criminals used to communicate in plain or in a language that can easily be intercepted by the police, today though, with the help of encrypted communication and anonymizing tools, it has become very difficult to arrest them. This means that this form of abuse is more disastrous because apart from the continuing and escalating abuse of the victims these images and videos are indefinite and can be accessed even when the act has ceased.

3. Grooming and Predatory Behaviors: Grooming is the process of developing trust as well as an emotional bond with a child over the internet with the intent of sexually exploiting or abusing the child. Emerging now, is a predator who may engage a child on the internet through social sites, chat, game sites and others. Sometimes, they are very cunning and may present themselves in various different ways or even pretend to be friends, relatives or any other people close to the targeted individual in order to be provided with personal information or invited for physical contact.

4. Social Media Influence and the Sexualization of Minors: One of the major problems is the sexualization of minors on social networks. Sexual content is directly or indirectly accessed by the children from advertisements, trends from influencers, and other users’ creations. These effects can result in children mimicking behaviors or dress codes that are wrong for their age. Essentially, the pressure to fit a certain mold that does not exist in real life can be immense and very suffocating, especially, if such pressure is accompanied by likes, comments and perceived or actual lack of validation. 

5. New forms of digital abuse, (involuntary pornography and deep fakes): In recent years new phenomena of digital abuse have appeared, which pose great danger to children and adolescents. Revenge or harassment pornography is a subcategory of computer pornography which entails sharing or posting the sexual images of people without their consent. Even deep fakes which are computer generated fake news using artificial intelligence to make the images look more real can be used in placing the image of a child in an adult content material. With the help of these technologies, online abuse takes another level where it becomes difficult to identify and prevent the distribution of negative content. 

Results

All these forms of cyber harassment and sexualization show that the problem is not simple and is rather deeply entrenched. Knowing how children are targeted in this way assists in the design of ways to intervene. Measures to stop the circulation and production of child abuse and sexualization online have been adopted around the world through such measures as- legal, technical, and creation awareness. These efforts, however, are general and of unsure nature simply because the nature and targeting of children are multi-faceted and the internet is constantly changing. Despite the fact that legal solutions make the core idea for coping with online child abuse, this main method is not very efficient because of preceding difficulties in its enforcement. Geography also presents a significant challenge in the prosecution of the crimes involving the use of children since most of the offenders always cross jurisdictions. This is due to the ability of offenders to maintain their identity when using the internet to perpetrate a crime and since the internet has no geographical barrier, the police have a difficult time tracking down the offenders. Furthermore, lack of equal laws in different countries results in different approaches used by different countries when dealing with the offenders. The relevance and importance of these issues is now being seen in the present India with the countermeasures to such issues being discussed in the parliament. A dedicated mechanism to deal with online sexual crimes on children and changes in the definition of 'child pornography' under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act are some of the recommendations that a panel of MPs looking into the impact of child pornography have suggested. The panel wanted the POCSO Act to consider the act of "advocating or counselling sexual activity" an offense to a minor, and wanted an international cyber crime reporting portal to facilitate the reporting of sexual crimes against children from all over the world. The panel, headed by Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, is learnt to have submitted its report to RS chairman Venkaiah Naidu .

Discussion

The implications which arise from the article concerning the needs to respond to the timely challenges associated with online child abuse and sexualization are numerous and carry a number of implications for policy, technology, education, and other aspects of the society. Such implications point out what integrated approach is required, what obstacles are to be surmounted, and what are the benefits of solving these problems. The article observes that there is a need to make laws relevant to cases of technological advancement in abusive ways as well as ensure that the laws are standardized globally. This means that legal changes should be made that remain abreast with technologies in place, eliminate the gaps between jurisdictions and enhance international coordination. Failure in doing so means that children are at risk as well as show the potential of offenders to take advantage of some loopholes in the legal systems. There ought to be international cooperation in order to fight online child abuse. This has implications to the subject of international relations, because the countries are required to cooperate and share information, as well as coordinate attacks on legal aid, for cross-border crimes. Better cooperation results in faster response times, better prosecution, and the prompt take-down of unlawful content across borders. 

The study also highlights the need for more companies to come under increased scrutiny in the protection of children. This means that technology companies may be threatened in the near future to have higher regulation, as well as more pressure to disclose the measures they are taking for the safety of their young clients, and even possibly fines if they do not protect an individual from becoming a target. The consequences are that it is possible that companies would have to go back to the drawing board to make protection a default feature of their brands. A group of the nation's top social media executives faced intense questioning from a united Senate committee about the mental health risks their enormously popular platforms pose for young people -- as well as accusations that their companies have failed to protect kids from exploitation and abuse. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg stood up to address those families with a direct apology for what they've endured4 . These moments serve as a wake up call to the world about the urgency of these issues and improvement in protection policy.  

Around one in eight children around the world have been victims of non-consensual taking, sharing and exposure to sexual images and video in the past year – equating to more than 300 million children, new research by University of Edinburgh researchers suggests, in the first-ever global estimate of the scale of the crisis. The same number of children are estimated to have been subjected to sexting and unwanted sexual act requests by adults or other youths, according to the study, which draws on data from some 36 million reports to five major watchdogs and policing organizations globally. 

Conclusion

Combating online child abuse and sexualization is one of the most significant threats that should be solved right now using the means and methods of different sectors. The use of the internet in learning and connecting to people comes with several risks such as predation, abuse and exposure to injurious materials. The effects of these dangers are not trivial, as they shape and alter children’s psychological, emotional and physical state, with possible lifetime results. The prevention strategies of today are now in forms of legal, technological, educational and support structures in case a child is violated online. But all this is not without some difficulty. One cannot overlook the fact that there are many challenges that hinder the improvement of the existing strategies such as the speed at which technology is growing, jurisdictions, privacy/Safety, and resources among others. The National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, India has taken suo motu cognizance of a media report that the circulation of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) has increased by 250 to 300 percent on social media in India. 

Governments, international organizations, tech firms and civil society must act more in a closer and integrated manner to build solutions and tactics which do not have national borders. Global support and coordination, standardizing the legal framework and embracing the commitment by the member countries are some of the initial actions that could be taken towards combating the horror of online child abuse and pornography. Ensuring increased access to education at schools and increasing the availability of digital literacy programs is perhaps the best solution to combat online abuse since the entrants will be aware of what is wrong. Education, organizations and social networks should become involved in improving cybersecurity, the general well-being of a person and proper usage of the internet. Technology companies cannot afford to sit back and relax as they are tasked with evolving and redesigning or developing better tools for use in identification and prevention of abuse with special emphasis on child abuse. More investment will be required in developing new advanced AI, continued improvement of intelligent content moderation systems, and establishment of higher ethical standards will become pertinent in combating offenders’ new strategies. The need to make available victim support services that mainly entail counseling, legal backup, and safe channels to report the crime is paramount in helping those abused restore their lives. 

Last but not the least the prevention of sexualization and exploitation of children requires prevention of factors which play a role in these issues in the society. This is about countering negative portrayal of gender, fighting for women’s rights, and making sure that kids are taught properly about what is right and wrong, what is consent, how to respect individual space and rights, and other aspects of interpersonal relationships. Online child abuse and sexualization is not just a minor issue that can be solved easily, but it is a war that needs continuous efforts, new ideas and collaboration. When addressing complex problems of child abuse and exploitation, and putting specific measures into practice, it is possible to create a more secure information space for the child in which she or he can learn, communicate with peers, and develop with minimum risks of becoming an abuse victim. It is a joint effort that takes many forms, with society at large involving everybody including politicians, schools, children’s parents, application developers, etc. Policing the children online is not a legal or technical question, but it is an ethical question commanding each and every one of us to do something. Altogether with everyone’s awareness and participation we can make the internet safe for every child and convert it from a dangerous place to a resource that opens new opportunities for them. 

References

1) Cambridge dictionary, ‘PAEDOPHILIA, English meaning- Cambridge dictionary’, dictionary.cambridge.org, accessed [03 September 2024].

2) ‘Divyanshu Dutta Roy’, ‘Boys locker room: A Delhi student’s group chat is every parent’s nightmare’, NDTV (5 May, 2020), ndtv.com, accessed [04 September 2024].

3) ‘Vasudha Venugopal’, ‘RS Panel suggests dedicated system to prevent online child abuse of children’, The Economic Times (14 Jan, 2020), economictimes.indiatimes.com, accessed [04 September 2024]. 

4) ‘Cheyenne Haslett and Alexandra Hutzler’, ‘zuckerberg apologizes to families of kids harmed online as senate grills tech CEOs’, abc News (1 Feb, 2024), abcnews.go.com, accessed [05 September 2024].

5) ‘Andy Gregory’, ‘Prioritize children online safety at election to tackle hidden pandemic of sexual abuse – expert urges’, Independent (2 Jun, 2024), independent.co.uk, accessed [05 September 2024]. 

6) ‘NHRC notices to the Centre, States, and Union Territories over the reported increase of 250-300% in Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) on social media in India’, National Human Rights Commission India, press release (16 May, 2023), nhrc.nic.in, accessed [05 September 2024]. 

AUTHOR:

Palak Guha

University Law College, Utkal University